


The Best Roller Coaster

by emelianss



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Carnival, Children, First Meetings, Fluff, Jeanmarco Month 2018, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 09:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15883272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emelianss/pseuds/emelianss
Summary: The carnival is full of peculiar people and beings, though most of the elf families keep to the hidden parts of it, always there working their magic over the fair but seldom seen. Jean has only spotted them on a distance before, except for the old one controlling the electric horses. He’s never understood what so many others find attractive in the man, and once when he pointed it out Auntie Hitch snapped he will get it when he’s older.Now an elf boy his age is standing only a few steps away, and Jean’s pulse is thrumming in his ears. He doesn’t often describe people as beautiful, but this time he finds no other word quite fits.JeanMarco Month Day 3 - The Generator





	The Best Roller Coaster

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the first of the [AU Generator](http://orteil.dashnet.org/randomgen/?gen=sPFVrcFw) days! I can spend hours playing with it, so I've gotten a lot of cool prompts, but something about this one was just so cute and nice to me I had to pick it. And I love cats too, so. Here we go :')
> 
> "cat lover!Jean and elf!Marco are children. Marco is embarrassed because his cat broke into the other's home and trashed it and Jean is riding the fastest roller coaster." 
> 
> My [tumblr](http://emelianss.tumblr.com) & [twitter](https://twitter.com/emelianss).

There are many kinds of roller coasters. Jean knows them well after spending his whole life at the carnival fair. He’s even managed to sneak into the fastest, craziest one, despite being too young, and definitely too short; it was delightful and thrilling and wrecked him into goo for the rest of the day.

Yet, despite the insane level of the Titan, he now finds himself at an even higher speed.

First, he comes home to find his room in a worse state than it had been when he left — something he often tries to convince Mom is the case even though it never is. But now the small space is completely trashed. Dolls and toys are spread across the floor as if fallen in a vicious battle, their trunk turned over and gaping empty in its corner. Scattered among the dead are crystals, amulets, old half-eaten candies, ticket stubs, and empty toffee wrappers. His barely started homework and the boring book Hanji has tried to make him read for weeks lie soaking wet beneath the broken glass pieces of the lemonade pitcher he forgot on his nightstand earlier. Over the whole room feathers from his pillow swirl in the air like big, strangely shaped snowflakes, caught on the breeze from the open window, and in the other end his wardrobe door hangs from one hinge instead of two, clothes spilling out like a thick, colourful waterfall from a rift in a mountain.

Jean stands there shocked, but before he has time to get upset his eyes fall on the cracked crystal ball half-hidden among his clothes by the wardrobe, and the striped cat licking its paw beside it. The cat stops when it notices the company and gazes up at Jean with one yellow eye and one green, not the slightest bit sorry for the mess it’s caused. On the contrary; its stare says Jean should be thankful. It even deserves a piece of that nice meal he carries on a plate in his hands.

And Jean _is_ thankful. His face splits in a wide, delighted grin, both at the sight of the cat and the broken crystal ball. Ever since Auntie Hitch gave the purple, foggy ball to him a few months ago on his birthday he’s had an uncomfortable feeling being close to it. But when he said so Hitch only laughed and Mom replied he was being silly and that it’s rude of him not to want it. Which is why it ended up in his wardrobe, where it could shimmer and shift colour and exhale that ghostly aura all it wanted on its own.

And now it’s no more. The colour has dimmed and stilled, the crack deep and wide and unrepairable. It’s freeing to see.

Jean hunches down, offering the food to his hero while giving it a soft path on the back. The cat looks almost like a small, greyish brown tiger, but with a slenderer shape and only a bit bigger than a normal house cat. Jean knows it’s an elf kind even before the boy with the pointy ears appear in the window to his caravan.

‘Oh no,’ the boy says, his dark eyes wide and brows deeply furrowed. ‘Oh no, oh no, I’m so, so sorry—’

He manages to climb in through the window without ruining anything more or get tangled in the velvet curtains, his steps cautious as he stares around the mess. And here is when the present roller coaster begins to speed up with Jean unknowingly already in it; he stares up at the other boy, the tousled dark hair, the pretty eyes, the cute button-nose with a splatter of freckles across it. Beneath them the boy’s cheeks are pink from embarrassment, and Jean feels his own face heat up too while his heart races in his chest.

The carnival is full of peculiar people and beings, though most of the elf families keep to the hidden parts of it, always there working their magic over the fair but seldom seen. Jean has only spotted them on a distance before, except for the old one controlling the electric horses. He’s never understood what so many others find attractive in the man, and once when he pointed it out Auntie Hitch snapped he will get it when he’s older.

Now an elf boy his age is standing only a few steps away, and Jean’s pulse is thrumming in his ears. He doesn’t often describe people as beautiful, but this time he finds no other word quite fits.

The boy is focused on the cat, scolding its behaviour, but the cat only meows at him before taking another bite of Jean’s dinner. This deepens the boy’s frown; when he turns back towards Jean, he looks positively distraught.

‘I’m so terribly sorry,’ he says again. ‘She’s been acting so strange lately, I don’t know what's gotten into her--’

‘I love cats,’ Jean hears himself say, the _don’t worry_ or _it’s fine, nothing important is broken_ vanishing from his mouth without having been spoken. Part of him might be dying from embarrassment, but the rest is so enchanted he somehow survives.

‘O-oh,’ the boy sounds, confused and surprised. ‘Well, me too, and usually she _is_ lovely but--’

‘I mean,’ Jean adds quickly, cheeks and ears hot. ‘It’s okay. It's just nice with a cat visiting. A-and I think she might have been looking for that.’ He points at the crystal ball, and before the boy can voice his horror at seeing it destroyed, Jean continues; ‘I’m really glad she broke it, honestly. It was creepy.’

Silence falls for a moment, only disturbed by the cat happily lapping up the rest of the food, and the boy’s thoughtful hum as he picks up and considers the broken pieces. He pouts in such an adorable way, lower lip poking out and his cute nose scrunched up.

Jean feels the roller coaster driving fast towards a drop; somehow he forces himself to stop staring like a fool. ‘I’m...I’m Jean, by the way,’ he manages despite his dry mouth, eyes on his foot as he pokes a doll with his toes. ‘And it really is okay. I’m not upset.’

‘I’m Marco,’ comes the reply, so quick and eager Jean’s gaze is pulled up again. Marco’s eyes are wide, but inviting now, and a shy smile fights for control over his lips.

The trail drops downwards 90 degrees, sending Jean free-falling through the air.

Marco’s blush deepens; he averts his eyes, instead looking down at the cat. ‘And this is Stripey.’ The glare he gives her is weak, and she purrs as she rubs against his leg. He sighs. ‘I’m glad you’re not upset, but it's still not okay. Though I’ve actually heard about other cats breaking crystal stuff too lately. It's said that the items is from the Other Realm and shouldn’t be here.’

‘Then she did a good job,’ Jean says and hunches down again when Stripey butts her head into his knee.

‘Maybe,’ Marco agrees, though he neither sounds nor looks convinced as his gaze wanders over the room again. ‘But she could have been smoother haunting for it. I’ll help you clean up, of course.’

Jean almost says Marco doesn’t have to, but he’s glad he stops himself before the words spill out. He doesn’t want him to leave just yet. Neither of them.

‘I’ll be back in a second,’ he says as he jumps up from the floor. ‘Mom left me dessert, and I’m sure it’s enough for all of us. She’s friends with like all the cake vendors and always gets stuff for free.’

Jean returns a moment later with the tray of colourful cakes to find Marco picking up the toys, unsure of where to put them. He looks to Jean, who nods towards the trunk where Stripey is already lying down. She gives them a knowing look, remaining still like a statue.

‘She seems comfortable,’ Jean laughs while Marco sighs at her again. ‘Don’t worry, let’s try these cakes first.’ Jean sits down on the floor with the tray between them, then glances at his empty dinner plate. ‘I was supposed to eat the dinner first but… it _is_ gone now so... Mom doesn’t have to know it wasn’t me who ate it.’

A mischievous grin pulls his lips to one side, and Marco lets out a soft laugh in response. Jean’s stomach drops a second time; as Marco takes a bite from the offered cupcake with a hum, as blue whipped cream gets stuck on the tip of his nose, as he wipes it away with a self-conscious smile and his long, dark eyelashes flutter against his pink cheeks, Jean’s heart beats fast, faster, fastest.

There are many kinds of roller coasters, and Jean has tried every single one within the carnival. The simple ones, for children half his age, and the fastest, craziest ones, even though he’s too young, and definitely too short. They were delightful and thrilling and over far too soon.

But this one, _the Marco one,_ is the fastest and longest and most breathtaking of all. And the best part, Jean later realises as it takes them both up hills as high as the sky before dropping to the depths of the ocean, turning and twisting and surprising him over and over with butterflies and excitement and happiness and _love_ , is that this one has only just begun.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoyed it :') <3


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